RampID Methodology
The LiveRamp Identity Graph is a core LiveRamp data asset and technology. It is a people-based map connecting de-identified offline touchpoints and online devices. LiveRamp’s goal is to optimize the Identity Graph to provide the best:
Correctness: Based on fully deterministic linking processes and quality linking data
Completeness: One of the largest collections of connected U.S.-based devices (with growing international scope)
Privacy: LiveRamp is a leader in data privacy and prioritizes security and ethical data management in all of our technologies
LiveRamp deterministically matches offline personally identifiable information (PII: name & address, email, phone) and online devices to people-based IDs. There are three aspects to this process:
Offline PII merging: Resolving separate emails, postal addresses, and phone numbers to a single individual
Online device linking: Matching disparate devices to people-based pseudonymous identifiers
Offline to online: Merging these offline and online identity spaces into a unified, privacy-conscious, people-based ID space
Note
LiveRamp prioritizes accuracy and precision over reach. Although we offer the largest fully deterministic identity graph, we have less scale than probabilistic vendors. We are committed to continuing to focus on correctness and supporting accurate, people-based marketing use cases.
Offline PII Merging
A foundation of LiveRamp identity resolution is resolving separate emails, name and postal addresses, and phone numbers to single individuals.
LiveRamp’s offline PII merging is powered by AbiliTec, our patented offline recognition technology. AbiliTec brings together disparate representations of offline PII touchpoints, thereby enabling a single, current, and accurate view of an individual. This individual is represented by an AbiliTec Link.
The AbiliTec customer data management technology uses a superior, extensive, and nuanced set of hardened algorithmic rules acting on a multi-billion record set of historical reference bases to deliver linking technology that improves the accuracy and quality of client data. AbiliTec’s algorithms are optimized and trained against the AbiliTec knowledge base.
About the AbiliTec Identity Graph
The AbiliTec Identity Graph is actually a series of reference bases that are non-discoverable, multi-sourced data repositories. The knowledge bases are sourced from hundreds of contributors and contain multiple name, address, and email representations for individuals, as well as the associative data to resolve the data points to an individual over time.
In order to ensure the highest accuracy and quality, the knowledge bases are continually updated and benchmark tested. Data thresholds must be achieved and strict quality and compliance audits conducted. Before a new data source is added to the repository, LiveRamp carefully vets the source to ensure the compliance, quality, reliability, contribution value, and sustainability of the data.
Additionally, LiveRamp continuously monitors existing sources to ensure their quality. Improvements to the technology are made regularly in an effort to improve accuracy.
The knowledge bases include, but are not limited to the following information: consumer PII data, consumer touchpoint data, internal metadata and associative data, examples include:
consumer name
business name, address
consumer touchpoint data, such as e-mail address and phone number
internal metadata such as frequencies, classifications, and thresholds
The types of sources included in the knowledge bases include:
public record data
publically available data
self-reported information
The data contained within the knowledge bases is “non-discoverable,” meaning the data stored within it is not retrievable by any client, third party, or any LiveRamp associate who is not directly involved in its maintenance. It is only used for analysis to create and maintain AbiliTec Links.
Householding
Separate touchpoints of PII are linked to households via AbiliTec’s householding algorithms. The algorithm puts individuals into households if they are seen consistently living together over time. There is no requirement for individuals to have the same last name or have a specific relationship (e.g. married). For example, long time roommates who keep
moving together are likely to be grouped into the same household. Household groups are used to create LiveRamp's household RampID.
Online Device Linking
Online Device Linking is generated based on deterministically-observed linkages of devices and pseudonymized PII touchpoints passed to us by our network of match partners. Our algorithms use the pseudonymized PII from these partners to match devices to a RampID, LiveRamp's people-based identifier.
Device linkages are routinely validated to ensure a high degree of precision and accuracy. Our approach to maintaining the relevancy and accuracy of the online data focuses on ensuring high-quality data inputs.
Offline-to-Online
AbiliTec merges offline PII, resolving to an individual represented via an AbiliTec Link. LiveRamp uses PII to deterministically link devices and uses RampIDs to represent an online individual.
AbiliTec Links can be directly translated to RampIDs, creating a deterministic offline-to-online view of an individual. Via this translation, any offline or online data can be matched to the same RampID space.